AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE DELAWARE COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND; DEFINING THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF SAID COMMISSION AND PROVIDING FOR AN APPROPRIATION TO PAY THE EXPENSES THEREOF.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Section 1. That a Commission to be known as "The Delaware Commission for the Blind," be and the same is hereby created and established, to have supervision and control of the education, supervision and control training and welfare of blind persons residing in the State of Delaware. Said Commission shall consist of seven members who now appointed shall be appointed by the Judges of the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, within one month after the passage of this Act or as soon thereafter as may suit the convenience of said Judges. Each County of this State shall be entitled to the appointment of at least one member of said Commission. Said Commissioners shall respectively hold office for the term of five years or until their successors are duly appointed. All vacancies on said Commission whether occurring by expiration of term or otherwise shall be filled by said Judges of said Superior Court. No person shall be ineligible to appointment by reason of sex to serve on said Commission.

Section 2. The said Commission shall organize by the selection from its members of a chairman, a treasurer, a secretary and such other officers as are or may be deemed advisable, and shall make such rules and regulations for its own conduct as may be deemed advisable. No member of said Commission shall receive any salary or compensation for services as such Commissioner.

Section 3. The said Commission shall have general supervision and control of the education, training and welfare of blind persons residing in the State of Delaware, and for that purpose shall from time to time select and appoint a suitable person or persons to be instructors of the blind, which said instructors shall at all times be under the sole control of said Commission, and shall be employed upon such terms, and shall do and perform such duties for such periods and in such manner as shall be determined by said Commission. The said Commission is authorized and empowered to expend such sum or sums of money as it shall deem proper and necessary for effectuating the objects of this Act, provided, however, that said sums of money shall not in the aggregate in any one year exceed the sum of money hereinafter appropriated to said Commission for such purposes.

Section 4. Any adult indigent blind person who is a resident of the State of Delaware may make application to said Commission to receive instruction and training from said instructors, said application shall be in writing and shall be endorsed by at least two (2) substantial citizens residing in the community in which the applicant resides. The said Commission shall have Commission full authority to pass upon said application and may grant or to pass upon application refuse the same in their discretion. They shall indicate at what time said instruction shall commence, for how long it shall instruction continue; and when it shall determine, and they may discontinue said instruction at any time when to them it shall seem wise or proper so to do.

Section 5. It shall be the duty of every parent, guardian or other person having custody or control of a blind child or blind children between the ages of seven and eighteen years residing in this State, to cause said blind child or blind children to receive instruction and training adapted for blind persons, for at least six months in each year until said child or children have attained the age of eighteen years. Any blind child may be excused by said Commission from receiving said instruction and training upon the presentation to said Commission of satisfactory evidence that said child is not in proper physical or mental condition to receive said instruction and training. Said parent, guardian or other person having custody or control of any blind child or blind children shall make application to said Commission for instruction and training for said child or children, upon receipt of a notice from said Commission to that effect. Said Commission may recommend to the Governor of this State that said applicant be placed in an institution for the instruction and training of blind persons. The Governor may grant or refuse such application in his discretion, and he is hereby vested with all the powers and discretion in regard to such application and recommendation as he, by law now has, in cases where application for instruction of indigent blind children is made through the Judges of the Superior Court of this State.

Section 6. Every parent, guardian or other person having control of a blind child or blind children, violating any of the Provisions of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall upon conviction thereof before a Justice of the Peace of the State of Delaware, be subject to a fine, of not less than Two Dollars, nor more than Ten Dollars, to be collected as like fines and penalties are now by law collectible and in default of the payment of said fine to undergo an imprisonment not exceeding ten days. Any person so convicted shall have the right to an appeal of the Court of General Sessions of the County in which said conviction was had, upon giving bond in the sum of One Hundred Dollars, to the State with surety satisfactory to said Justice of the Peace by whom said person was convicted. Such an appeal shall be taken and bond given within three days from the time of conviction.

Section 7. This Act shall not apply to any blind child or blind children who are being otherwise instructed and educated in a manner satisfactory to said Commission.

Section 8. Said Commission shall have full power and authority to accept and receive any private funds, bequests, legacies or gifts of property real, and personal to be used for the education and training of blind persons and to hold, manage and invest the same and collect and disburse the income thereof and disburse the principal thereof in accordance with the directions of the parties devising or donating the same; and in default of any such direction, then the said Commission shall accept, hold, manage and dispose of said property and disburse the income thereof in any manner which it may deem best adapted to promote the education, training and welfare of blind persons residing in the State of Delaware. Said Commission may hold, own, sell and dispose of any such property real, personal or mixed so received as aforesaid and may reinvest the proceeds from the sale of any of said property and collect and disburse the income therefrom and the principal thereof in the manner above outlined.

Section 9. There shall be appropriated annually for the purposes of said Commission the sum of One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1500.00), and the State Treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to pay to the Treasurer of said Commission in the month of April in each year said sum of One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1500.00), the first payment thereof to be made in the month of April, A. D. 1909.

Section 10. That the Act entitled, "An Act to Provide for the Education and Training of the Indigent Adult Blind Persons of the State of Delaware," as it appears in Chapter 142 of Volume 24, of the Laws of Delaware, be and the same is hereby repealed.